Batty in Austin

Tonight we went to Hey Cupcake and then down to the Congress Street Bridge to watch the bats come out. The girls thought it was neat to go to a cupcake stand that was in a trailer. Keep Austin Weird and all that....

(I'm going to pause and say that personally I didn't love the cupcake, but that might just be me. I think it is more kitschy than anything. I wouldn't kick one of these cakes out of bed or anything, but it wasn't all that great.) (I have standards.)

This picture doesn't exactly represent how happy they were to be there...really. They were just busy trying to decide between the 24 Carrot and Michael Jackson.

Then we moved on to the Congress Street Bridge and got there just in time to see the bats start to come out. Emma had a lot of questions about whether the bats were interested in humans or just bugs, how close were the bugs they were going to eat, if there was a bug near us would the bat come after it...you get the idea.
If you look in the left corner of the picture you will see some of the bats flying around. Literally, there was about a million of them.
Click on this picture to get a larger view and you will see all the bats just above the tree line. They are flying south for some dinner. We thank them for eating all the mosquitoes and flies. It is nice to sit outside and not get eaten alive by those pesky bugs.
While the show was going on we stopped in the picnic area to the side of the lake and ate our cupcakes. Emma is definitely Grammie's girl. All in all I think everyone enjoyed the experience. They had been downtown earlier in the day to visit the Children's Museum while I was at work and everyone was a bit tired from the activities of the day. Not to mention mom keeping the older 3 out until past midnight last night at Main Event. Apparently they were having a good time and there were no clocks in the building so they stayed pretty late.
We ended the night pretty early so we could head back to Grammie and Poppa's house and get some sleep. Tomorrow we go to Schlitterbahn!

Cousins

My nieces from Illinois are visiting us for 8 days and so far it has been a blast! I haven't taken many pictures yet but the week is young. Last year when they came to visit I took over 600 shots.

Excessive? Who, me?

Even though I worked all day today I was able to get some good pictures of the kids playing this evening. Bella went to gymnastics with Avery (another story all together. And it involves a lot of Avery running around the place doing everything but listening to the teacher. And then other kids starting to follow. It was anarchy. And then the teachers pulled their hair out. Oh, the stories) and I took these shots of the two hyper girls before we left. After class they took a bath with Jack and had a blast. Jack is definitely well liked in this crowd.

Here are just a few pictures from the visit so far.


Can you tell which one wears massive amounts of sunscreen and which one doesn't? Frankly, I am raising nerds. *hangs head in shame*
Jack gave us a big smile just after I took this picture. Figures. There is no shutter speed fast enough for this guy.
I think he just needs to learn early that sometimes love hurts.
Getting ready for tumbling class. Avery was reluctant to share her leotard at first but quickly changed her mind when she realized that it meant Bella would be coming with us to class.
They have been playing together so well. It's hard to capture or express how much fun they are having but this picture comes close. It makes me a little sad that we aren't close enough in distance to see them more often. But this week, we'll forget all about that and enjoy the laughter that is all over our house.

By the way, Avery is 7 months younger than Bella. Avery is taller and weighs more but Bella keeps reminding Avery that she is older. It is so cute.

Time Out

Jack has a bit of a hitting problem. He doesn't get that hands are not for hitting. So today he took a few trips to Time Out, which is our front door (a place Avery chose when she starting visiting time out at around 2). I know he isn't hitting in anger or frustration. He thinks he is being playful but it isn't fun for the whole family when he is smacking us in the face.

I just thought the little face he was making in Time Out was so cute that I had to get it on camera.

I didn't mean to hit you repeatedly. Really!

FREEDOM!!

C'mon! How can you stay mad at this face?

Seriously, thought, this hitting thing needs to go. Avery never did this, and she certainly wasn't going to Time Out this young. I think we are in for some looong toddler years.

Proof

Here is the picture of my dad with curly hair that I was talking about. You will have to click on it to enlarge and get the full effect of his man perm.

My dad is the one in the brown leather jacket with the confused look on his face. I am sure he was thinking that he should not allow someone to take his picture as it will be proof in 20 years that he actually had a man perm.

After reading my last post my dad said: You just leave me off your blog from now on. haha!

Who Knew It Was Even Possible To Get A Man Perm

This first picture is for Kim.

I folded over her new quilt a few times so it fits on her little bed. We're looking at some regular sized beds but this time it is Matt that is resisting moving her up. Technically she still fits in this bed. You know, if she sleeps with her knees slightly bent or only uses the small pillow so that her head is at the very top of the bed. So obviously she isn't ready for, or in need of, another bed.

Maybe I can convince him to get his act together by Christmas. He actually used Avery as an excuse saying that we should talk to her first and see if she even wants another bed.

Wow. What a stretch.
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In other news, it appears that I carried my own father's baby. Clearly Jack has his eyes and hair color (although dad is mostly grey now so you'll just have to take my word for it), his smile and his intense need for a nap at around noon. There is nothing Jack would rather do than hang out with his Poppa. He has literally jumps out of my arms to get to my dad. Both of them get frustrated easily but seeing either of them to smile makes your whole day. It's nice to be able to see them together all the time.

ASIDE: True story--My dad had a perm in the 80s. On purpose. He pretty much just looked like a porn star (not that I knew that then but seeing the pictures now makes me realize that he could have easily had a side job. which, ewww.) I'll have to scan a picture of him rockin' his curls while in Paris. I just can't imagine where a man would even go to get a perm. How does that conversation go when you go to the barber shop? I'm going to need to find out from my mom if he told her he was going to get a perm before he did it or if she was just surprised when he came home with curls all over his head. My Lord! You should never act on that kind of impulse. Because your kids will NEVER let you live it down. Ever.

Let this be a lesson to you all.

Carnivore

Jack enjoyed his first taste of ribs at our 4th of July celebration. To say he loved it would be an understatement. Matt couldn't have been more proud of his boy eating BBQ.

"Step away from my rib!"

"Are you trying to take my rib?"

Nom Nom Nom

"Seriously, I will cut you if you try and take this from me."

mmm, BBQ juice all over my hands

And I threw this last one in for obvious reasons....

Baby butt crack is really the only acceptable butt crack, don't you think?

Getting Started

In about a week my brother and sister-in-law are going to drive to the airport, open the car doors and kick my 4 nieces out of the car. They are putting them on an airplane (solo) to visit us for 8 days. God bless the people at Southwest Airlines and Godspeed to the people who happen to have tickets on that flight. I hope you packed your Xanax.

Seriously, though, we are thrilled that the girls are coming to visit us. We have asked them to make a list of all the things they want to do while they are here and we are pretty much just going to stick to that list all week. The good news for us is that Savannah, the 6 year old, told me that all she really wants to do is clean our toilets. I couldn't love that girl more if I tried.

Since they are visiting the week leading up to Avery's 3rd birthday I have tried to get on top of the preparations for her party so I don't have to do anything while they are here. I'm sure I will get 80% of it done this week and then run around like a mad woman at 9am on the day of her party making sure I get the other 20% done. And that 20% will probably be the most important stuff. I am queen of getting the unnecessary details done early while keeping the critical party pieces on the back burner until it is the very last minute.

Efficient, I know.

Here is a sneak peak of one of the projects I am working on for her "storybook" party.

I didn't get party hats with a specific character on them since we are having a book themed party. Instead, I bought plain hats and then made these labels to attach to the front of the hats. They are in all different colors because the book covers and characters from the books we will feature at the party have all of these colors in them. The pink sparkly "3" will be Avery's hat and then the others all have the inverse design. (click on pictures for a close up view)
I think it is going to be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to putting together the rest of the projects in the next week.

My mom, by the way, is totally against this party theme. She wanted me to get a big bouncy house and let the kids play in that rather than have a storybook theme. I get that bouncy houses are a lot of fun and most normal kids love those. But not my kid. She is so scared of those things (which I find extremely funny). But she likes doing craft projects, playing games and she LOVES to be read to. I understand that it isn't the most exciting party theme in the world but I also know that it is the perfect party for my girl.

You wouldn't expect anything else for a future mathlete.